


A New Beginning

by girraffepancakes



Series: A Believing Heart Is Your Magic [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Adventure, Alternate Universe - Boarding School, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Friendship, Gen, Gender-Neutral Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Little Witch Academia AU, Magic, Teacher Allura (Voltron), Witch Allura (Voltron), Witch Hunk (Voltron), Witch Lance (Voltron), Witch Pidge | Katie Holt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-22
Updated: 2018-05-22
Packaged: 2019-05-10 08:23:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,603
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14733425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/girraffepancakes/pseuds/girraffepancakes
Summary: Lance has always wanted to be just like his idol, Shiny Chariot. The way she used magic to bring joy to people's hearts is what inspired him to become a witch in the first place!Now, he has finally gotten the chance to attend Luna Nova Academy, the place Shiny Chariot learned her magic. He may not be from a witch's family like everyone else, but he plans to show that he has just as much of a place in the world of magic as anyone else. He just has to find the campus first...(Based on the anime series Little Witch Academia, but not necessary to have seen it for this fic.)





	A New Beginning

“Welcome to...” A young Lance sits forward in his seat in anticipation as a loud voice echoes through the audience around him, “the world of magic!” Everyone around him gasps as a woman takes shape from a soaring beam of light on stage.

“Look, look, it’s Shiny Chariot!” Lance tugs on his older sibling’s sleeve, hardly able to contain his excitement. He’s been waiting to see this performance since he first started collecting Chariot’s trading cards (which is no small feat, considering the steep competition from her other countless fans). His dream is finally coming true!

A gust of wind blows by, tousling Chariot’s long waves of white hair and lifting her cape behind her. The brim of her pink witch’s hat extends around her face like a halo, and Lance is entranced. 

“Now please, extend your hand!” Chariot reaches her hand out and her magic wand materializes before her-- the Shiny Rod! Cheers and whistles fill the audience around Lance as he leans forward to try to see better. “Your story is about to begin!”

With a wave of her wand and a twirl of her skirt, Chariot is suddenly riding a giant wave of water out over the crowd. Everyone holds their breath as they are submerged underwater, but instantly the water is gone and Lance is searching the sky for Chariot’s familiar silhouette. Shooting stars fill the night sky and glittering sparkles of magic fill the spaces between each audience member. The crowd awes as the ground below them disappears to show more open night sky, and they appear to be floating through space.

Chariot rides her famous broom overhead, leaving a trail of green light behind her. She dives through the air, beginning a routine of magical tricks. She transforms from a mermaid to a bird to a centaur as she flies through the air, capturing everyone’s hearts.

Suddenly, Lance feels a warmth within him; a determination to experience this joy forever! A small fairy-like figure of light bursts from his chest and flies to join the others around him. Chariot lands on the stage as fairies, horses, and other figures dance through the sky.

Chariot gasps as small, engineered blocks trail after the lights and form a ball-- no wait, a dragon that chases and attempts to destroy the lights. Lance cowers in fear, knowing soon enough Chariot will save them all.

Sure enough, Chariot throws her hat, transforming it into a large bird that she flies on the back of, and challenges the dragon head on. Holding the Shiny Rod in front of her, she shouts, “Nocte Orfei Aude Fraetor!” The Shiny Rod transforms into a large bow and arrow, which she uses to shoot the threatening black and red dragon. “Shiny Arc!”

With a burst of fire, the dragon explodes into a glittering shower of magic, releasing all the contained bits of light from the audience members. Shiny Chariot takes this as her cue to leave, opening a portal with the Shiny Arc and turning slightly to address the audience one last time. However, in this moment, Lance feels as if Shiny Chariot is speaking to him personally.

“Never forget,” her voice seems to echo through the crowd despite its quiet tone, “a believing heart is your magic.” Giving a final wave of her arm, Chariot flies into the portal and disappears from the audience.

As the last green glimmers of Chariot’s magic rains down among the crowd, Lance grabs a tiny sparkle of light in his small hands and holds it close to his chest, making himself a promise.

No matter how hard he’d have to try, he’d be just like Chariot someday.  
  
  
  
  


 

 

“I can’t believe I’m finally here,” Lance grins excitedly at the small town that surrounds him. “The place where Chariot learned her magic!” Grabbing his suitcases and taking a steading breath, Lance begins his journey into town. “It’s time to become a witch!”

He walks leisurely down the cobbled road, taking in the sights around him. Small shops line the street, as well as the occasional flower bed, tree, and fountain. What a lovely town!

However, he soon realizes he has no idea where he is going. (Okay, yeah, maybe he sort of thought destiny would guide him down the right path. Or at least maybe an internal sense of direction would.) Seeing an older couple outside a small cafe, he stops to ask them where the nearest bus stop is.

“Sorry, dear, there hasn’t been a bus stop here in ages.” They smile sadly, so Lance thanks them and gets on his way.

Well, they are pretty old, so maybe their memory is just giving out. He spots some kids playing a game down the road a bit-- maybe they’ll know.

The kids scoff at his question and resume their game. “There’s no bus stop here.” Scowling, Lance resumes his search, no thanks to them. Kids these days, jeez.   
  
A young woman across the street is carrying a large backpack, though, so she must be traveling somewhere too. She will definitely know where the bus stop is.

She doesn’t know. In fact, like everyone else, she insists that there is no such bus stop anywhere in the town.

Lance plops down on a bench with a sigh. Who knew witch school would be this hard. This isn’t even the school part yet! How is he supposed to study at Luna Nova, the school of his one and only idol that he has centered his entire sense of self around, if he can’t even find it.

He decides to give it one last shot, pulling the small folded map out of his pocket. “It says there’s a bus stop here...” Though, the symbol for the stop is kind of weird. It looks like some weird sort of tree-building, but he just figured that was part of Luna Nova’s charm or something.

Looking up from the map, he makes out a small building on a hill a ways away.

Wait! That’s the building from the map!

Grabbing his suitcases as fast as he can, Lance races off toward the distant building. He’ll make it to Luna Nova in no time! In his haste to get to the bus stop, though, he makes a quick glance up to the horizon only to crash into a small person in front of him.

Both Lance’s and the stranger’s belongings scatter across the ground, and Lance himself falls flat on his face. Slowly picking himself off the ground and grumbling a bit to himself, Lance apologizes for his clumsiness.

“Ugh, I’m really sorry about that.” Looking up, he notices that the stranger is carrying a broom. “Whoa, are you a witch too?”

Upon getting no response as the stranger dusts themself off further, Lance continues to question them. “You’re going to Luna Nova right? Obviously you are; look, you even have the emblem on the book you’re reading. That’s so cool!”

Lance grabs the book off the ground and hands it to the stranger as they finish packing up the rest of their spilled belongings. “My name’s Lance, by the way. What’s your name?”

Instead of responding, the stranger eyes Lance wearily, pushes their glasses up the bridge of their nose, and reaches into their bag for a small potion bottle. Grabbing a small plushie belonging to Lance, the stranger pours the potion onto the stuffed bird and hands it to Lance as the bird starts to move around.

“Whoa, puppet magic! That’s awesome!” The bird proceeds to poke its beak directly into Lance’s eye, making Lance yell out in pain. “Ow, ow, ow! He got me right in my eye!”

Frowning at the bird, he stuffs it-- and the rest of his misplaced belongings-- back into his bag and runs to catch up to the stranger.

As he catches up, Lance sees them reading the same book from before with the Luna Nova emblem on the front. He can’t make out any of the words, but he can see an illustration of a large bird like creature, with the word “poisonous” underneath it in bold.

As they start to cross over a small stream, Lance peers over the stranger’s shoulder, trying to read the text on the page. “Whatcha reading?”

The small person startles and whips their head toward him in annoyance. At least he’s finally getting some sort of reaction from them! Before Lance can say anything more, the stranger reaches out with one hand and pushes an unsuspecting Lance over the railing of the bridge and into the stream.

Breathing hard and extremely irritated, Lance finally makes his way out of the water with his clothes heavy with water and sticking to his body. Grabbing his luggage from the bridge and giving up on making a new friend out of the stranger (who is now all the way to the tree-building), Lance trudges further up the path.

As he approaches the large building, his hopes finally start to rise once more. He looks up at the old stone tower with trees rooted along the walls and overhears the voices of a few girls standing outside. They are already donning their Luna Nova uniforms and brooms, and seem to be sharing a funny story, judging by the loud laughter he hears.

“Can you believe they're letting someone in that's not from a witch’s family? It's unbelievable.” The first girl laughs and flips her long ponytail over her shoulder as the other girls join in laughing.

“I heard he can't even ride a broom!” The tallest girl of the group laughs with a deep, booming voice.

“Ugh, Luna Nova has really lowered their standards lately. It’s so disappointing.”

“I heard it’s because they’re having financial trouble. I guess it doesn’t matter how terrible of a witch you are, if you can pay your tuition.” 

The girls all burst into laughter simultaneously at this comment. Lance doesn’t really find their conversation to be as funny as they do. The school being on hard times financially is nothing to laugh at!

He can’t ride a broom either, so it must not be too uncommon to begin with. Well, unless they were talking about him. Which they probably weren’t; he’s never met any of them before in his life. Either way, he’s pretty sure the girls aren’t known around the school for being nice, yet he puts that thought aside in favor of trying to talk to them anyway.

“Uh, hey guys,” Lance starts. “Do any of you know when the bus is gonna be here?”

The girls go silent, looking between each other before they break out into giggles.

The tall girl with the deep voice speaks to him between breaths. “You actually thought there was a bus coming? Oh my god.”

Another girl who hadn’t yet spoken chimes in, “The only way to get to campus is by broom, idiot.”

“This is a broom stop to the Leyline Terminal.” The girl with the long ponytail gets on her broom, and the others follow her lead. Still laughing at Lance’s misunderstanding, she continues, “Good luck making it to Luna Nova if you can’t even ride a broom. If you’re late to the Opening Ceremony, you’re automatically expelled.”

With a final patronizing smirk in his direction, the girls shout out “Tia Freyre!” and fly off into the building.

Lance follows them through the open archway to find the inside of the building to be a hollow tower with a large green portal on the ceiling. The trees growing on the outside of the building also have roots on the inside, which line the inner walls like vines. Lance watches as the group of girls fly their brooms up into the portal and disappear from sight.

He had done a little reading about magic before coming to Luna Nova, and he sort of remembers it being some kind of magical highway. Apparently, witches can fly through it on their brooms and use it to transport themselves anywhere they want to go. He didn’t think they’d have to use it on the very first day, though...

Sighing, Lance leans against one of the walls and looks up at the swirling portal above him. “What do I do now?”

He could try climbing the roots up to the portal, but he can already tell they wouldn’t be strong enough to hold his weight and he wouldn’t be able to carry all of his luggage and climb at the same time anyway. Just as he is about to give it a shot, though, he hears someone mumbling something behind him.

Turning back towards the path to town, Lance sees another student struggling to pick up a pile of items that had fallen out of his bag. Deciding to do what Shiny Chariot would do, he walks over to help the witch collect his things.

“Why did Mom insist on giving me all these magical items? I’m never going to use all of these..” The student grumbles to himself as he shuffles a pile of-- walnuts?-- into his bag.

Though Lance decided to help the other student, he still feels his hopes crashing of ever attending the school he’s always dreamed about. He wonders how his aspirations will ever come true if he doesn’t attend Luna Nova as he reaches for a book on the ground and hands it to the boy in front of him.

Noting the hopeless, near tears expression Lance must have on his face, the boy slowly reaches for his book. “Uh...” he puts the book in his bag, still looking at Lance with concern, “thanks?”

“No problem.” Lance sees that the book ended up being the last item on the ground, so he takes his leave by walking back to the building, sitting down on the ground, and resting his head against the stone brick wall with a dejected sigh.

Out of his peripheral vision, Lance sees the other boy still looking at him and nervously pinching his index fingers together. Approaching the archway into the building, the boy looks at him before entering. “Um, you okay there?”

Voice shaking slightly, Lance looks up at him. “I don't have a broom. I can’t make it to Luna Nova.”

The boy hesitates for a moment, glancing at his broom. Sounding slightly unsure of himself, he says, “Wanna ride? I don't know if we'll both fit with all of our luggage, but--”

“Yes, yes, yes!! Thank you so much!” In an instant, lance is jumping up and grabbing his things. As he hastily piles his suitcases onto the boy’s broom, he introduces himself and finds out his new friend’s name is Hunk Garrett.

“Okay, all ready?” Hunk looks over his shoulder at Lance, who is sitting behind Hunk with their luggage hooked onto either end of the broom. Lance nods in response, so Hunk calls out “Tia Freyre” and their broom rises off the ground (albeit a bit unsteadily, due to the extra weight).

As they rise into the Leyline portal, Lance takes a deep breath in excitement. He's finally on his way to Luna Nova! He’ll be there in just a few minutes, and then his magical journey will really begin!

Lance is admiring the tunnel of magic they are flying through when Hunk’s broom shakes again, a bit more forcefully than when they first took off.

“Heh, that's normal right?” Lance laughs nervously.

Hunk hums, and Lance can tell he is nervous too. “That depends. I don't normally carry other people, much less this much luggage at once.” The room jolts again, making Lance instinctively grip tighter onto both Hunk and the broom. “But who really knows for sure, am I right?”

Before Lance can respond, the broom begins to uncontrollably shake much worse than any of the previous times. One of Hunk’s suitcases falls of the broom completely as one of Lance’s bags falls open, spilling his belongings down into the portal.

“Yeah, this is definitely not normal.” Hunk says as the Leyline portal starts to shift from its previous lime green shades of magic energy to darker greens and browns. The previously nonexistent wind picks up, blowing Lance’s clothes in various directions simultaneously. Hunk has to shout over the wind to continue talking. “It looks like the energy in the Leyline is breaking down! You're not carrying any salt are you? Saline disrupts the flow of magic!”

Lance suddenly remembers something, digging through his backpack and pulling out a small purple jar. “I have this jar of pickled plums, do you think that's causing it?”

“Yes, definitely! Toss it!” Hunk shouts over the bow howling wind.

“But my mom made these for me,” Lance pouts, reluctant to throw away his going away present from his mom. Before Hunk can respond to him, the wind tugs on his jacket just perfectly to cause his Premium Shiny Chariot Collector’s Card to flutter out of his pocket and into the void. “My most prized possession!!” Lance cries out in despair.

“Like I said, get rid of the plums!” Hunk shouts again.

“Fine, fine!” Lance gives the jar one last look, then throws it into the Leyline, hoping his mom can send him more.

His efforts seem to be in vain though, because the Leyline is still destabilizing around them. In a glimpse, the tunnel they had previously been traveling through vanishes. The Leyline directs them through an alternate opening in the tunnel, and both Lance and Hunk are soon falling through a black hole.

  
  
  


Allura sits in her room, reading a book about new studies on moon-based magic. It doesn’t entirely fit in her astronomy curriculum, but she is considering adding it to this semester’s course. Her students would probably love the chance to try out a new type of magic. However, she would definitely have to test it out for herself first...

She is rapidly pulled out of her thoughts by her mice familiars squeaking at her from her balcony railing. Stepping from her chair in front of her large window, she follows their frantic steps down the stairs and into the main portion of her bedroom and office area.

“What is it now, you three? Did I forget to feed you this morning?” Allura asks cheerily. Her demeanor soon shifts, though, as she can tell they are aware of something very wrong.

The two leaner mice of the bunch scamper up onto her desk while the third one struggles at the base of the desk’s leg. Smiling slightly, she lifts it up onto her desk to join the other mice. All three of the mice make their way onto the edge of a large bowl of charmed water, summoning its viewing abilities.

As the colors in the bowl shift, Allura starts to make out a picture of three young students falling from a damaged Leyline portal and into the Forest of Arcturus.

“Arcturus? Oh no, this is very bad.” Allura quickly grabs her hat and broom and dashes out of the professor’s dormitory with encouraging squeaks from her mice to cheer her on.

  
  
  


Lance opens his eyes groggily to see trees above him. Where was he?

Oh, right. He had been traveling to Luna Nova when the Leyline broke down and ejected him and his travel companion out into who-knows-where. Speaking of Hunk, where is he?

“Hunk, you out here?” Lance slowly sits up from what he now assumes to be a forest floor. He can hear various sounds of nature around him, but none sound explicitly human. “Buddy, please let me know you're okay.” Lance tries again.

There's nothing guaranteeing that Hunk didn't hurt himself on the fall down, so Lance really hopes he's alright. And not just because Hunk is still his only hope of reaching Luna Nova, but also because Lance already considers them to be friends. Now that he's thinking, though, there's also nothing guaranteeing that Hunk even landed in the same place as him. 

Somewhere behind him, Lance hears a slight groan. “Ugh, welcome to Luna Nova.”

Lance jumps at the unfamiliar voice and whips his head around to see a less unfamiliar face. Meaning the face is familiar, because it's the face of the person who pushed him into the stream earlier!

Lance does also realize that the voice was more under than behind him, because he had apparently landed on the other person. He doesn't like holding grudges, but a small part of him feels like the person sort of deserves their fate.

Regardless of his inner spite, he immediately gets off the person. “What do you mean Luna Nova? This is some sort of forest.”

The person brushes off their clothes as they stand up, grabbing their broom off the ground. “It's still part of the Luna Nova campus, though. The Arcturus Forest, to be exact. It's also called the forbidden forest, for obvious reasons, which is why I was trying so hard to stop you from following me earlier.”

“Wait, you came here on purpose? Why? And why is it forbidden? Is it dangerous?” Lance looks up at the overhead tree cover, and starts to notice details he had overlooked before.

The trees seem to twist in unnatural ways, their gnarled roots tangling with each other. What he might have assumed to be nearby running water now sounds like an animalistic hiss. He feels something tugging on his leg and looks down to find a vine slowly curling its way around his ankle.

Screaming, Lance vigorously shakes his foot free and starts calling for Hunk. Never mind whatever this other person is doing, he needs to find Hunk and get out of here. Now.

“Hunk? Hunk, please, are you out here?” Lance hollers out desperately.

“Is this who you're looking for?” The person from before-- Lance really needs to get their name-- is holding back the branches of a large bush, revealing a passed out Hunk laying on the forest floor.

“Hunk!” Lance runs over to him immediately, shaking him in attempt to wake him up.

“Here, move.” The person gently pushes Lance away from Hunk’s body and pulls a small potion bottle out of their bag.

“Hey, what do you think you're doing?! I'm not just gonna let you hurt my friend!” After their last encounter, he doesn't really trust this person with potions. Before he can protect Hunk, though, they are pouring the potion over Hunk’s chest.

Magic energy starts to glow, and Hunk stirs slightly. Oh no, he's not gonna come back like some sort of zombie, is he?

Lance is about to demand that the still nameless person fix Hunk immediately when he slowly sits up, rubbing his head.

“Uh, what happened?” Hunk foggily blinks in confusion, seeing Lance with his fist bunched up in the person’s loose, brown robes. “Who are you?” He asks, addressing the person.

Brushing off Lance’s hand, they stand up. “My name’s Pidge Gunderson.”

Interrupting whatever else Pidge may have said, Lance jumps in. “Hunk, buddy, you wouldn't believe where we are. The Leyline took us to some haunted forest!” He shudders at the thought. How will they ever get out of here?

“Forbidden. Not haunted.” Pidge corrects. “Legends say that even the most gifted witch could get lost in here and never find their way out.”

“So then why exactly are you here?” Lance accuses, though he isn't quite sure what he’s accusing them of. They just seem suspicious.

Pidge grins slightly at this, mounting their broom. “I'm here to look for a cockatrice. It's a breed of monster that only lives in the Arcturus Forest and is sought after by poison collectors for its venomous feathers.”

With that, Pidge flies off, leaving Lance and Hunk behind. What a weird witch.

“Uh, Lance?” Hunk murmurs from behind him. Lance turns around to find Hunk holding various pieces of what was previously his broom. “I don't think we’re gonna make it to the ceremony in time.”

“What, no way! We can totally still make it.” Lance says, although he isn't entirely sure himself. Grabbing Hunk by the hand, Lance pulls him up and starts walking through the forest. “I bet we can catch up with Pidge and they'll give us a ride out of here.”

Not mentioning the fact that Pidge is riding a broom and is probably unreachable at this point, Hunk mumbles an agreement to Lance’s plan.

As they are walking, something a few feet away catches Lance’s eye. After eyeing it for a moment, he realizes it’s his favorite stuffed bird he had packed with him. He pushes back the branches of a few trees and bushes to find that almost all of his luggage is in the small clearing, albeit a bit strewn about.

He starts picking up his belongings (one of which happens to be his Shiny Chariot card-- score!) when he sees his suitcase tangled in some vines.

Seeing his line of sight, Hunk speaks up from back on the trail they were previously following. “Um, Lance, this forest has a lot of bad stuff in it, I've heard. Maybe don't mess with anything--”

Before Hunk can finish his warning, Lance has begun tugging his suitcase out of the vines. They seem to be moving around quite a bit, but it's probably just from Lance’s violent pulling on them. One vine in particular though shoots up out of the bunch and wraps tightly around Lance’s wrist.

Shouting out, Lance let's go of his suitcase while trying to pull his hand free. The large vine that had been wrapped around the handle of his suitcase then rises from the ground with a giant flower bud at the end. Okay, that's not too bad, a big flower isn't too dangerous, right?

Wrong. The flower bud suddenly opens wide to reveal a mouth-like bloom with steaming acid dripping from its petals. Yeah, maybe he should have listened to Hunk.

Still struggling to free his wrist from one of the smaller vines, Lance is unable to protect himself from the witch-eating flower’s approach. Before he is devoured alive though, Hunk appears out of nowhere with a large branch which he uses to beat the vine. The tension around Lance’s wrist loosens with Hunk’s attack, and he is able to get free.

Leaving the rest of his belongings, Hunk and Lance begin running away from the giant flower which, horrifyingly, uses its vines to pick up from the ground and chase after them.

No longer worrying about finding Pidge, Lance and Hunk take off in a random direction, trying to lose the man-eating flower while simultaneously sticking together. Because of their frantic running, neither of them manage to spot the moderate sized pit in front of them. Both boys fall into the pit and yell out in pain. However, they do manage to get the flower off their trail. They both breathe heavily as they watch the tangle of vines race by overhead.

“Well,” Lance starts, still out of breath. “At least we didn’t get seriously hurt, am I right?” He grins for a split second before turning to see Hunk grimacing in pain. “Whoa, Hunk, are you okay?”

Hunk breathes out shakily, “For the most part, yeah. I twisted my ankle pretty bad, though.” He shifts slightly, taking as much weight off the injured leg as possible. “I’m really sorry, Lance. I don’t think we’re gonna make it to the ceremony in time.”

Lance pauses for a moment, taking in the sight before him. This can’t be the end; he won’t let it be! He didn’t come this far to just-- to just fall into this pit! No, he will make it to Luna Nova. He will make it to the Opening Ceremony on time, and he will become a great witch just like Shiny Chariot!

“Come on, Hunk.” Lance stands up, offering his hand to his friend. At Hunk’s expression of confusion, Lance beckons to him again. “I’m gonna help you out of this pit, then I’m gonna find Pidge, and then we’re gonna make it to Luna Nova.

“I know you’re hurt, but we can still make it. I know you have doubts, and I probably should too, but we can’t give up now. This is what being a witch is about! When things get tough, we stick to our goals and see them through. I’m just starting my journey into magic, and I want you to have yours too. So what do you say?”

Hunk looks at him, speechless. After a beat of silence though, Hunk smiles up at him, grabs his hand, and slowly starts to shuffle onto his knees. With the support of Lance helping to lift him up, Hunk is soon enough standing on one leg at the inner wall of the pit.

Thankfully, it’s only a few feet deep (which is bad enough when you’re already tired and injured), so it only takes them a few minutes of heaving, using Hunk’s upper body strength, and a few more motivational monologues before they are both out of the pit and laying on the ground above in exhaustion.

Lance sits up, trying to figure out their next move, when some vines start growing at his feet. Oh no, he’s not gonna fall for that again! Nice try, haunted forest, but you’ll have to try better than that.

The vines simply grow a couple feet into the air though and stop. They aren’t trying to hurt anything, so maybe it’s just some weird type of non-hostile plant. Still watching it warily, Lance takes a step back from it when it suddenly starts to glow with magic energy.

Now, Lance isn’t an expert on magic by any means, but he’s pretty sure only witches can use magic. Anything with magic energy would probably be something left behind by someone, possibly with the use of a spell.

The glowing stops as a small staff starts to take shape. Wait, no-- it’s not a staff, it’s a wand. The final bits of light die down, and Lance finally realizes what exactly this wand is. It isn’t just any wand, it’s the Shiny Rod, the wand that Shiny Chariot used!

Lance quickly rips the Shiny Rod from the small cluster of vines, still slightly afraid of them reaching out to grab him. “I wonder what this was even doing here...” He wonders aloud. Sure, Shiny Chariot hadn’t been seen or heard from in almost ten years, but he figured she would have at least kept her wand. Before he can think too much harder, Hunk interrupts his thoughts.

“Hey, is it just me, or is the forest, like, way quieter than it was?” Hunk asks.

Pausing to listen, Lance notices what Hunk is talking about. Throughout their time in the forest, there seemed to be a constant chatter of animals, monsters, or whatever else was out there. Now everything seems to have come to a standstill, though.

Lance is about to ask Hunk what the cause might be, when a large boom echoes through the forest. Lance and Hunk look at each other in confusion. There aren’t any clouds to be seen, so it couldn’t be a thunderstorm. Another boom soon follows the first, this time accompanied by a loud screeching sound.

Looking through the surrounding trees, Lance can see a large clearing in the direction of the sound. It’s too hard to see exactly what’s happening, but he can see some sort of movement.

“Hunk, stay here. I’m gonna go check out what’s in that clearing.” Lance mumbles quietly, clutching the Shiny Rod close to his chest. Hunk opens his mouth to protest, but Lance is already walking towards the loud noises.

Coming to the edge of the clearing, Lance hides behind a tree to fully absorb what his eyes just saw. The source of the noise had been the large stomps and cries of a huge beast. It looks mostly like a ginormous rooster, but its wings have been replaced by huge dragon wings and its backside consists of a large snake tail.

Lance peers out from behind the tree once more, now noticing something else. Someone is flying around the monster, trying to grab at its feathers while also avoiding its thick grey breath. Hold up, is that Pidge?!

He runs out from his hiding place, and yells up at Pidge. He may have had disagreements with them before, but they seem generally nice and they definitely don’t deserve to die! “Pidge! Hey, Pidge! Down here!” Lance hollers out, waving his arms around.

His voice does get the desired effect of drawing Pidge’s attention, but Lance also manages to draw the monster’s attention as well. Uh oh.

“Lance, what are you doing?!” The monster’s distraction allows Pidge a split second to grab one of its feathers.

“Trying to help you not die! What are you doing?!” Lance runs around the edge of the clearing, making the monster walk in a half circle to follow him. Apparently getting tired of the movements, it heaves in a deep breath and exhales its thick grey breath again.

Disregarding Lance’s question, Pidge screams down at him from her broom, where she is avoiding the monster’s snake tail. “Don’t let the Cockatrice breathe on you; you’ll turn to stone!”

“Oh, great, thanks!” He shouts back sarcastically. “Look, Hunk’s back maybe a quarter of a mile from where I came. Go get him, and I’ll distract this thing until then.”

He watches Pidge fly off without question, which he appreciates. Dodging another of the beast’s attacks, Lance remembers that he has the Shiny Rod with him. Now, he may not know many spells or have much (well, any) experience with magic, but he is a witch after all! Magic runs through his veins! He must be able to use the rod for something useful, right?

“Uh, laser beam. Shoot fire.” Lance tries while running throughout the clearing and shaking the wand in the monster’s (Cockatrice’s?) general direction. “Flame-ius monster-ium.” Surprisingly, nothing happens.

As the Cockatrice catches up and faces him once more, Lance hears rustling in the bushes behind him. Turning, he sees that the venomous flower from before managed to track him down. Well, great.

The Cockatrice takes in a breath, surely preparing another stone-breath attack as the flower starts to shuffle towards Lance. Getting an idea, Lance dives under the rooster’s head and rolls between its legs. Coming out at the other end, he sees that his plan was successful; the flower ran straight into the Cockatrice, getting its vines tangled around its body. The Cockatrice’s breath turned the flower and its vines to stone, making it almost completely immobile.

“Hey,” Lance hears a voice off to the side and looks to see Pidge on her broom with Hunk sitting behind her. “Need a ride?” Grinning, he gets on the broom behind Hunk, and they finally fly off and out of the Arcturus Forest.

“How are we going to get to campus from here? Do you know the way out?” Lance asks Pidge, leaning around Hunk’s side.

“Well, I--”

A loud screech interrupts Pidge’s response. Twisting his head around, Lance sees that the Cockatrice managed to free itself and is now following them.

“The rooster monster is back, guys, and it’s gaining on us.” Lance alerts the others.

“I don’t think we can gain enough speed to outrun it with all three of us on the broom.” Hunk nervously points out.

Pidge laughs nervously. “Yeah, this might be a good time to tell you guys, the Cockatrice also breathes fire.”

Letting out another screech, the giant bird blows a column of fire at them, catching the end of Pidge’s broom. Frantically, Lance tries to pat out the flames with his jacket but only ends up fanning them with air and making the fire worse.

The fire reaches the end of the base of the broom, causing it to sputter out of magic and fall out of the air. The three students free fall through the air, screaming as the ground approaches quickly.

Suddenly, the Shiny Rod begins to glow in Lance’s hands. In his mind, he swears he hears Chariot’s voice telling him to use it. Unaware of the nearby Professor Allura attempting to tell him of the correct spell, Lance follows what he believes to be Chariot’s directions.

_ Nocte Orfei,  _ she says.

“Note Orfei,” Lance breathes, clutching the rod tightly.

_ Aude. _

“Aude.” Lance feels the magic inside of him growing as he closes his eyes in concentration.

_ Fraetor! _

Opening his eyes, Lance casts the spell with the final word. “Fraetor!” The Shiny Rod glows even brighter, and he already knows what to do next. “Shiny Arc!”

Years of mentally replaying Chariot’s magic show has taught him how to use the now transformed bow and arrow. He draws back the arrow, shooting it directly below him, where the ground is now iminent. The arrow opens a portal to the Leyline, swallowing Lance, Hunk, and Pidge just before they hit the ground.

Half falling, half flying through the Leyline, Lance breathes a sigh of amazement. He just used one of Chariot’s spells! If he had any doubts before, which he didn’t, they’d definitely be gone now. He will undoubtedly become a witch like Chariot!

Reaching what the Leyline must know as their destination, the three students are deposited (more like dropped) into the main hall of Luna Nova just as the headmaster is calling the start of the Opening Ceremony. Talk about luck!

“No way, we totally made it!” Lance calls out happily as all attention turns to the three raggedy students laying on the floor in the middle of the ceremony. Noticing the attention to be less joyful than he feels, he quickly ducks his head down and finds an open seat along with Pidge and Hunk.

  
  
  


After the ceremony, Lance, Hunk, and Pidge are called to the Headmaster’s Office. Although some of the professors are uninclined to let them stay due to their disruptive behavior, the Headmaster is much more sympathetic to their earlier struggles and lets them off with a warning.

The three of them are then sent off separately to pick up their uniforms, textbooks, and dorm assignments. It seems as though Lance’s luck has finally run out at that point, because the professor assigned to help him around is Professor Iverson, the teacher who had most desired for his permanent expulsion.

However, it ends up not being too bad. While Iverson is very grouchy, nothing can ruin Lance’s mood. He is officially a student of Luna Nova!

Bringing Lance down a corridor that looks significantly less elegant than the other ones he had been through so far, Iverson opens a door, “Welcome to your new dorm. These will be your study partners for your time at Luna Nova.” Giving Lance on last look of suspicion, Iverson leaves with that.

Rolling his eyes slightly, Lance enters his dorm room, excited to find out who his new partners will be. Gasping in surprise, he walks in to find Hunk and Pidge sitting at their respective desks in the small room.

Grinning, he drops his backpack (the one bag he managed to salvage out of the Forest of Arcturus) on one of the bunk beds. “Well, hi there. My name’s Lance McClain, it’s nice to meet you.”

Smiling softly at his antics, the other two students launch into negotiations of bed assignments and drawer space usage. While he is less than thrilled to get the bottom bunk of the bunk bed, Lance still can’t find it in himself to feel anything but excitement for the year to come.

**Author's Note:**

> This is the prologue to a longer series I'd like to write, so let me know if you'd also be interested in a longer story! Thank you for reading <3


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